Yes. It's Information. My unconventional personal worldview is a Theory of Everything. And it's based on the quantum equivalence of Energy and Matter and Mind. From that equation, all of your questions can be answered. :smile:Can one define that which defines everything? — Benj96
Photons and other fundamental particles including the electron and proton, exhibit behaviour that sometimes can best be described by waves eg diffraction, and sometimes as particles. eg the photoelectric effect. These characteristics are both seen in the famous 2-slit experiment, the results of which still confound scientists and philosophers. Perhaps the best overall model is that of a quantum wave.26
What I’ve always found interesting is when my high school textbooks always described light energy as having both particle and wave characteristics without ever explaining the reason for that. — Braindead
How does energy become matter and then manipulate itself? — Benj96
How does it observe itself and ask questions about itself? Why does it have the capacity to love and hate?
Yes. I have concluded that ancient people used the word "spirit" (literally invisible living "breath") as a metaphor for what we now call "Energy". It's the power of agency, the ability to cause change, the potential for useful work. Animists were closer to modern science than the later Judeo-Christian notions of a non-physical Soul for humans only. But Science has determined that even physical Energy is equivalent to what we now call "Information". And, before Claude Shannon, "Information" referred only to mind stuff. So, Matter, Energy, and Mind are different forms of the same thing : Information.Again, mind and energy may be much the same thing. If energy is mind then energy is what is traditionally termed 'spirit'. — EnPassant
Yes. Information requires some kind of Mind to contain & process specific Concepts. But in my thesis, Generic (creative) Information is the Universal Substance of Spinoza. It's not only abstract, but also Metaphysical. And, so is Energy.But there must be substance if there is to be anything. Information by itself is abstract. There must be mind or substance to hold the information in being. — EnPassant
I'm quoting this reference to stack exchange because here, in this thread, it's simply a link, buried in a fair sized post. And over on philosophy-forum land it seems there are some people who are treating energy as a type of thing in itself and running with it. For such people I think it's a bit more important to dig deeper, to point out what experts say about energy. So I want to highlight the accepted response here, to unhide it:What is Energy made of? : https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/14444/what-is-energy-made-of — Gnomon
...and from various comments:Energy is not made of anything, energy is a term used to describe a trait of matter and non-matter fields. — AdamRedwine
'Energy happens when atoms combine'. — Becky
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